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Altoriental. Forsch., Akademie Verlag, 39 (2012) 2, 265277

Karen Radner1

The Stele of Adad-ne ra r III and Nergal-e res aih H amad) from Du r-Katlimmu (Tell S .

Abstract
aih H A Neo-Assyrian royal stele from Du r-Katlimmu, modern Tell S . amad in Syria, bears two cuneiform inscriptions, one in the name of Adad-ne ra r III of Assyria (r. 810783 BC), the other in the name of Nergal-e res , governor of the Assyrian province of Ras nu . appa. Both inscriptions concern the god Salma and his temple at Du r-Katlimmu for whose reconstruction and refurbishment Adad-ne ra r and Nergale res take credit.
ra r III (king), Nergal-e res (official), Du r-Katlimmu (city), Keywords: Assyria, 8 th century BC, Adad-ne Neo-Assyrian inscription, Neo-Assyrian stele, Salma nu (god), temple.

This paper presents a copy and an edition of a stele of Adad-ne ra r III, king of Assyria (r. 810783 BC), which Nergal-e res (or Pa lil-e res ),2 his governor in the province Ras . appa, dedicated to the god Salma nu of Du r-Katlimmu, modern Tell Saih H . amad on the Lower H bur in Syria. The presentation of the stele is based on examination of its two fragments, .a one in the British Museum and one in a private collection in Geneva. The stele, made of black basalt, is of the typical Assyrian shape with the rounded top and shows the king in prayer, surrounded by divine symbols. The monument bears two inscriptions, one on the front written from the point of view of the king and a second on the left hand side of the stele from the point of view of Nergal-e res , whose name and titles, like on the stele from
1

My thanks are due to Jonathan Taylor, British Museum, and the owner of the Geneva fragment, who wishes to remain anonymous, for allowing me to work with the stele fragments in their care, as well as to Frans van Koppen for his comments and suggestions. I am also grateful to John M. Russell, who first alerted me to the existence of the Geneva fragment, and to Hartmut Khne, with whom I have dis aih H cussed the Du r-Katlimmu stele on several occasions, often in Tell S . amad itself. This paper was written as part of the research project Mechanisms of communication in an ancient empire: the correspondence between the king of Assyria and his magnates in the 8 th century BC, funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2008 to 2013. Bibliographical abbreviations used can be found in Reallexikon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archologie (RlA). How the first element of the name, conventionally read Nergal-e res , or alternatively Pa lil-e res , was pronounced is entirely unclear. There are good arguments for the assumption that neither Nergal nor Pa lil is the correct reading. See discussion in Khne / Radner (2008: 3132).

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r III and Nergal-e res Karen Radner, The Stele of Adad-ne ra

Tell al-Rimah . (see below), were erased at a later point. The inscriptions explicitly mention Du r-Katlimmu as the seat of the god Salma nu, confirming the testimony of archival texts aih H amad (Radner 1998; 2002: 1516). Adad-ne ra r is credited with found at Tell S . restoring the temple, while Nergal-e res , who is presented as a loyal supporter of the crown, is credited with dedicating on behalf of his king a golden sword and this very stele, so that the god might bless the ruler, his rule and his realm.

The Two Fragments aih H In May 1879, Hormuzd Rassam visited Tell S . amad for the purpose of examining an Assyrian sculpture, which was reported to me by different Arab travellers to exist there (Rassam 1897: 311). This turned out to be a fragment from the top of a basalt stele with a cuneiform inscription and a representation of an Assyrian king in prayer, with only the head and an arm as well as three divine symbols preserved. The fragment had been hurled down the mound by the Arabs, who erected a shrine , as the effigy was considered an idol of the benighted heathens unfit to remain in that hallowed ground, but it was believed that the remainder of the [stele] is buried on top of the mound (Rassam 1897: 312). Rassam confiscated the stele fragment and had great difficulty to move to the sea-coast what remained of the Assyrian sculpture, because it was too large to carry on horseback; and when we came to thin it, as I had taken some tools with me for the purpose, it was found too hard to cut (Rassam 1897: 312). While this may give the impression that Rassam was unable to cut away the steles back, the fragment as it eventually arrived at the British Museum (inventory number: BM 131124) had been mutilated and is now only 15 cm thick. It has a maximum preserved height of 81 cm and a maximum width of 52 cm. This upper fragment was identified as a stele of Adad-ne ra r III by Alan Millard and Hayim Tadmor, who published a full edition with copy and photograph (1973). aih H While at Tell S . amad in 1879, Rassam had some test trenches dug (see Khne 2008: 544) and intended to return the following year in order to search for the rest of the monument, but he did not receive the necessary permit (Rassam 1897: 313), and, to the best of aih H our knowledge, he never returned to Tell S . amad. No further fragments of the stele have been unearthed during the German excavations conducted under the direction of Hartmut Khne since 1978.At some point after Rassams visit, a second, larger fragment of the same stele must have been discovered at the site, though when and how this occurred is presently unknown. This new fragment first came to public notice when it was offered for auction at Christies in New York in 2000. Its connection with Rassams piece was not ams recognized at the time, presumably as it was mistakenly attributed to S -Adad V of Assyria (Christies New York, 13 June 2000: 134135 no. 491). However, since the auction catalogue contained very good colour photographs of the front of the stele and its left hand side, which bears a second inscription, it was possible to propose the join with Rassams aih H piece from Tell S . amad and offer a reconstruction of its historical context (Radner 2002: 15; also Radner 2008: 543; Khne / Radner 2008: 3334). The piece was not sold at the time and was returned to Geneva, where it has since been stored in its shipping crate. In summer 2012, the owner of the fragment contacted Dr. Jon Taylor of the British Museum,

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75 cm

10

20 cm

27 cm

Fig. 1

and it was arranged for me to view it. I am pleased to be able to present here a full edition of the two inscriptions on the basis of my examination of the Geneva piece on 1 November 2012 and the British Museum piece on 16 November 2012. My copy (Fig. 1) combines both fragments. The British Museum fragment had previously been copied by Alan Millard (Millard / Tadmor 1973: pl. XXIX), and my copy differs only in line 9, which is somewhat better preserved and clearer to read than the earlier copy suggests. The Geneva fragment preserves the steles original width of 75 cm and its original thickness of 27 cm. It is broken off at a height of 137.5 cm (max.). The inscription on the front, parts of which are preserved on both fragments, allows the reconstruction of the relative position of the two pieces and therefore the original height of the monument, resulting in the following dimensions: 212 75 27 cm (Fig. 2). The Du r-Katlimmu stele is therefore significantly larger than another stele of Adad-ne ra r III and Nergal-e res of the same shape, the Tell al-Rimah stele (RIMA 3,A.0.104.7), which likewise shows the king in prayer . surrounded by divine symbols and is made of grey Mosul marble and measures 130 69.3 20.4 cm (Brker-Klhn 1982: 196 no. 164.). A third stele of Adad-ne ra r III and Nergal-

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r III and Nergal-e res Karen Radner, The Stele of Adad-ne ra

Fig. 2

e res , the Saba<a stele from the southern Jebel Sinjar, is likewise smaller at 192 50 38 cm (Brker-Klhn 1982: 196 no. 163), but looks rather different (see Blocher 2001: 319, 322 for photographs). It also depicts the king in prayer amidst divine symbols, but is executed in such an unusual square shape that it may have served as an architectural element rather than a free-standing monument (RIMA 3, A.0.104.6). Adad-ne ra r s Pazarcik (RIMA 3, A.0.104.3; 140 44 16.5 cm; Donbaz 1990: 9) and Antakya stelae (RIMA 3, A.0.104.2; 127 52 31 cm; Donbaz 1990: 7) were erected as border markers rather than dedicatory monuments and are of a different design altogether.

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Fig. 3

Fig. 4

aih H The Geneva fragment weighs close to a ton,3 and whereas Tell S . amad today is no longer such an out-of-the-way place as Rassam (1897: 313) found it to be, one must wonder how this heavy and unwieldy object might have been excavated and especially aih H transported from the site. The German team that has worked annually at Tell S . amad since excavations began in 1978 never noticed illicit digging on the mound of the necessary large scale (Hartmut Khne, pers. comm.), which may perhaps indicate that the stele had been unearthed before 1975, when Khne and his collaborators first started surveying the site. This may perhaps lend some support to the assertion that the fragment was inherited from the owners father in the 1960s (Christies New York, 13 June 2000: 134).
3

930 kg according to the note on its shipping crate.

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r III and Nergal-e res Karen Radner, The Stele of Adad-ne ra

The Inscription of Adad-ne ra r III, King of Assyria On the front of the stele twenty lines of cuneiform inscription are incised across the body of the king, which is executed in high relief (4 cm). The fragment in the British Museum (BM 131124) preserves the ends of lines 110. The Geneva fragment, whose surface is better preserved than that of the other piece, has the beginnings of lines 910 and all of 1120. The lines are separated by very straight horizontal rulings. The signs are well shaped and very regular despite the fact that they are incised across the body of the king. Several lines continue onto the raised, 5 cm wide border of the stele. In photographs, including the one presented here (Fig. 3), the shadows cast by the figure of the king and the rim obscure part of the text. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 am-s man kur As -s ur a mS iX [mdXrin.th man] dan-nu man s m d man kib-rat IV-ti [man s man kur As -s ur a ] di -ma-numas I.A.MES gigirMES rinH ] karas lu- ad-ki a-na kur Hat-t [i] [GIS D e-bi [r] [a-na du-ki lu aq-bi ] a.rad ina mi-[l]i-s m- ki [a-na URUPa-qi-ra- hu]-bu-na a-ta-rad mA-tars MES m [a ad ra-me a-di VIII man] -ni s kur Hat -ti s i-si- hu-[m]a -nu it-tak-lu p]u-ul- hi me-lam-me s As -s ur e[n-ia] [a-na MES-s -nu-te ina is -t]e-et mu.an.na kur Hat-t[i] [is- hu-pu-s a-di pa -[at lu- ak-s u]d ina ugu D[tam-ti] . gim-ri-s i lu- [a-lik s s di-me dutu-s . a-lam en-ti-i]a URU Ar-me-di s murub4 Dtam-ti lu az -qu-pu ina GIS r!MES e-ri-ni a-na kur Lab-na-ni e-li GIS GIS u-ma e-ri-ni s u-a-t-nu dan-nu-ti a-kis ina u4-me-s ta* q-reb kur Lab-na-ni lu s -s -a ina k ddi-ma-ni en-a a-bi lu -kin -dingir la-bi-ru s mddi-ma-nimas -bi-ia e-pu-us e-na-a h-ma u a-na-ku ina hi-sa-at s s u-a-t ta* -s i-s u a-di gaba.an.dib-s lu e-pu-us dingirMES GIS GIS rMES e-ri-ni s ta* q-reb kur Lab-na-ni ina ugu-hi lu-u -kin (space) e-nu-ma dingir s u-a-t -s al-bar--ma e-na-hu mu s at lu-ter nun egir- an-hu-su lu--dis . -ru a-na ki-s

(12) [Adad-ne ra r (III)], strong [king], king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of ams S -Adad (V), [king of the universe, king of Assyria, son of] Salma nu-as are d (= Shalmaneser III), king of the four quarters. (34) I mustered (my) [chariotry, troops] and armed forces and [gave the order to march] to the land of Hatti. I crossed the Euphrates in flood. (56) I went down [to r-s umk , [son of Ab -ra me, together with eight kin]gs the city of Paqirahu]buna. Atta of Hatti, who had rebelled and (711) [trusted in their strength] the awesome radiance of the god As s ur, my lord, [overwhelmed them. In just o]ne year, [I subdued] the land of Hatti to its full extent. Towards the s[ea] of the west [I marched]. I [erec]ted m[y lordly image] in the city of Arwad in the midst of the sea. (1217)

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I ascended Mount Lebanon. I cut strong logs of cedar. At that time, I placed those cedars from Mount Lebanon in the gate of the temple of the god Salma nu, my lord. The old temple, which Salma nu-as are d (= Shalmaneser I), my ancestor (lit. father), had built, had become dilapidated and I, in a stroke of inspiration, built this temple from its foundations to its parapets. (18) I placed the cedar roof beams from Mount Lebanon on top. (1920) When this temple becomes old and dilapidated may a future prince renovate its dilapidated parts and return the inscription (lit. written name) to its place. 9: 11: There is a space between the two components of the sign D due to the fact that the carving of the fingers of the king precluded writing there. URU Ar-me-di is the first such spelling of Arwad (see Bagg 2007: 2729, s.v. Arwa da for the other attestations), but the identification with the island city is clear because of its description as s a qabal tmti, in the midst of the sea, and the overall context. URU Ar-ma-di. The Tell al-Rimah . stele (RIMA 3,A.0.104.7: 10) has The final vertical wedge of the sign R is missing. According to the Tell al-Rimah . stele, Adad-ne ra r cut 100 cedar beams for the requirements of my palace and temples (RIMA 3, A.0.104.7: 11). Constructing the Salma nu temples gate and roof out of the Lebanese cedar beams must have consumed a significant portion of that number.

12:

The inscription contains a version of the report of the campaign of 805 BC against an alliance of western rulers under the leadership of Atta r-s umk of Arpad, which, after the defeat of the coalition at Paqirahubuna (in the region of modern Gaziantep in south eastern Turkey; see Bagg 2008: 186, s.v. Paqarhubuni), afforded an opportunity to visit the Mediterranean and the island of Arwad, off the shore of the modern city of Tartus in Syria. All this information is known already from other inscriptions issued in Adad-ne ra r s name (Millard / Tadmor 1973: 5764). New, and specifically relevant for Du r-Katlimmu, is that a visit to Mount Lebanon at that time resulted in cedar logs being brought back in order to renovate the temple of Salma nu, the god of Du r-Katlimmu. This shrine is said to be a foundation of my father Salma nu-as are d, which must refer to the first king of that name (r. 12631234 BC), who indeed has already been suggested as the temples founder on independent grounds (Radner 1998: 4951).

The Inscription of Nergal-e res , Governor of Ras . appa On the left side of the stele are preserved 25 further lines of the cuneiform inscription, with at least one line missing at the beginning (Fig. 4). The lines are separated by irregularly applied rulings. The signs are not as deeply incised as those on the front and are less evenly appears in two variants arranged. The sign forms are also less uniform, e.g., the sign MES (compare ll. 10 and 18 with ll. 13 and 14). There are also some mistakes in lines 7 and 11 (see below). While it is easy to find fault with the work of the stone mason who applied the inscription, whoever composed the text made use of a highly literary language and

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r III and Nergal-e res Karen Radner, The Stele of Adad-ne ra

vocabulary, which contrast with the blander inscription on the front. This literary style is ams reminiscent of that found in the inscriptions of S -ilu, the field-marshal of Adad-ne ra r III (see Dalley 2000: 8586). There are some passages in our inscription that are so far without direct parallels (see below). Most of lines 3 and 4 were intentionally erased at a later point, largely obscuring the name and titles of Nergal-e res and damaging also some of the signs in line 5. [beginning lost] 1 a-s ib URU bdduk -[I.lim ki-is . -s . i] 2 k s u-bat na-ra-me-s en gal en-s md igi.dukam [gar].kur kur R[a-s 3 . a-pi] U RU [ Ne-meddXV URUAp-k]u 4 5 nam-s e-pis -ma . a-r [u k.g] i -s -s ur en-s 6 alam mXrin.th man kur As -s ur} en-s 7 ana d{X mXrin.th man kur As as .te sanga-ti-s 8 pab-ir GIS GIS gidru mur-te-<-at 9 s u-ut-mu- hi s u.II-s 10 unMES -s ur 11 di numun-s {SI} di un! kur As ana mar-e 12 u di kur As -s ur za-<i-ri-s 13 s -t a-na zhMES . u-ti-s 14 mil-ki krMES -s ana gr.II.mes -s 15 s uk-nu-s e d-us -ma i-qis 16 s nu s -a-t ta* igi d di-ma-nu s ub ana ki man-ma gar-nu 17 s ub- lu-u 18 lu-u ina aMES I.A i-kt-ta-mu 19 ina saharH 20 lu-u ina azag a-s ar 21 la-ma-a-ri -s e-ra-bu-ma gar-nu d di-ma-nu en gal-u 22 23 lugal-su lis-kip mu-s numun-s 24 ina kur li- hal-liq it-ti 25 gme kur-s ina mi-nu-ti lu-s i-ib [To the god Salma nu] (12) who resides in Du r-Kat[limmu, the] holy [shrine], his beloved abode, the great lord, his lord. (34) Nergal-e res , [gover]nor of the country of R[as med-Issar . appa], the city of [Ne (and) the city of Apk]u, (5) had a gol[den sw]ord made and (15) made and presented (68) an image of Adad-ne ra r III, king of Assyria, his lord, to the god ra r , king of Assyria}, his lord, who protects the Salma nu!! {Text: Adad Adad-ne throne of his priesthood, (915) to give into his hands the sceptre that shepherds the people, for the wellbeing of his seed, the wellbeing of the people of Assyria and the wellbeing of Assyria, to scatter his adversaries, to destroy his fierce foes, to subdue his enemy princes.

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(1621) Whoever discards this image from the presence of Salma nu (or) puts it into another place, whether he throws it into water or covers it with earth or brings and places (it) into a taboo house where it is inaccessible, (2225) may the god Salma nu, the great lord, overthrow his sovereignty; may his name (and) his seed disappear in the land; may he live in a contingent together with the slave women of his land. In Neo-Assyrian usage, a nams . aru-sword is no ordinary blade but a weapon fit for a god (see CAD N/1 246, s.v. nams s ur contains a . aru). Sargon IIs Letter to As aldi of Mus as ir wore at his side (TCL description of the golden nams aru that H . . . 3, 377), and the object presented here by Nergal-e res will have been a similar weapon for Salma nu. 7: The passage marked with { } is an obvious copying mistake, where the stone mason repeated parts of the previous line. We can correct this passage with confidence to read Salma nu, as it is this deity that is referenced in lines 17 and 22 and of course also in the inscription on the front of the stele. 89: Salma nu is presented as the guardian of kingship, as the protector of the throne and the donor of the sceptre. This is the first explicit such mention attested for the first millennium, but it fits well with the fact that Salma nu is one of the gods of the palace receiving votive gifts as part of the installation of the new king according to the so-called Middle Assyrian Coronation Ritual (see Radner 1998: 39). , the sceptre that shepherds the people is attested in an 910: hat t u murt <at nis .. inscription of Adad-ne ra r II (911891 BC): RIMA 2,A.0.99.2: 78. 11: Again there are some writing mistakes. The sign SI seems to be superfluous and the sign interpreted here as UN has too many vertical wedges. 1214: No fewer than three synonyms are used to describe the kings enemies, the frequently used terms za <iru and nakru as well as the rather more high-brow as . tu te, which is attested in Assyrian inscriptions from Tukult -apil-Es arra (= Tiglath-pileser) I (11141076 BC) onwards (CAD A/II 475, s.v. as . t u a.2). ams Roughly contemporary to our reference is a passage in an inscription of S -ilu, Adad-ne ra r IIIs field-marshal, from Til-Barsip that calls the goddess Is tar sa kipat as . tu te, she who drives out the fierce foes (RIMA 3, A.0.104.2010: 7). s u ana zar, in order to scatter (like seed) his adversaries: there seem to be za <ir no parallels so far for the use of zar, to sow seed, to scatter (CAD Z, 7071), in other Assyrian inscriptions, although the alliteration with za <iru makes this a particularly attractive turn of phrase. 1617: At Tell al-Rimah res s stele was found in situ inside the cella of the . , Nergal-e temple beside the podium that once held the statue of the god, apparently seated on a throne (Oates 1968: 123, pl. XXXIIXXXIII; Page 1968: 139). We can assume that the Du r-Katlimmu stele was set up in a similar position inside the Salma nu temple. 25: The last curse formula has no known parallels in the corpus of Assyrian inscriptions. The rest of the curse section, especially the description as to what evil fate might be in store for the monument (see Radner 2005: 259), runs largely parallel 5:

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r III and Nergal-e res Karen Radner, The Stele of Adad-ne ra

to the formulation of the Saba<a stele (RIMA 3, A.0.104.6: 2630), although there As s ur and Marduk, rather than Salma nu, are the ones who are to punish any offender.

The Date of the Monument The stele is dated to the reign of Adad-ne ra r III (810783 BC). The titles of Nergal-e res , albeit mostly erased, nevertheless allow us to narrow this down to the period prior to 797 BC. Two of his holdings can be reconstructed with relative certainty as Ras . appa and Apku. The latter city is associated with Ne med-Issar in the Saba<a stele (RIMA 3, A.0.104.6), and the very concise title of Nergal-e res on a small stone cylinder reads governor of Ne medIssar and Ras med-Issar a plausible . appa (RIMA 3, A.0.104.2006), which makes Ne candidate for the second toponym in the present list (certainly a city). Nergal-e res does not nu yet, which was added to his holdings by royal edict in 797 appear to control Hinda (RIMA 3, A.0.104.9). On the other hand, a direct link is made between the logging of cedar beams in the Lebanon, dated to 805 due to the connection with the campaign against Arpad, and the renovation of the Salma nu temple, for which the stele was fashioned. This suggests a dating of the monument to 805 or relatively soon thereafter, and certainly before 797.

Nergal-e res , Du r-Katlimmu and Salma nu A Special Relationship? Nergal-e res s holdings as a governor included the city of Du r-Katlimmu, as is made explicit in the inscription of the Saba<a stele (RIMA 3, A.0.104.6: 24). In the present inscription, we encounter Nergal-e res specifically as a devotee of the god Salma nu. One might simply assume that the care for Du r-Katlimmus patron deity Salma nu was part of his expected duties as the senior administrator of the province in which this temple was located. After all, Nergal-e res also dedicated, on behalf of Adad-ne ra r , stelae for the storm god Adad at 4 < ) and at Saba a. Zama hu (Tell al-Rimah . Or are there any indications for a special relationship? Indeed, the god Salma nu is also attested elsewhere in close association with Nergal-e res , and, significantly, this is the case at least two decades after his donation of sword and stele to Salma nu and, moreover, outside of Du r-Katlimmu. The only Neo-Assyrian archival tablet so far excavated at Tell al-Rimah . is a legal text dated to 777 BC. It documents how the governor Nergal-e res exchanged a field against one controlled by an official from Zama hu (Tell al-Rimah .), and this trans action is, as was the norm, protected with security clauses that curse whoever would break the contract. The first of these clauses is so far without parallel and reads, May the gods Salma nu and [DN] make him disappear from Ne med-Issar! (Postgate 1970: 3132, pl. XI:
4

The ancient name of Saba<a is unclear, although the passage ina an za-ban-ni ul-ziz-s (RIMA 3, A.0.104.6: 22) would seem to refer to it. But Saba<a is certainly not Zabban, a notable cult centre of Adad, which, however, is a city in the Diyala region (George 2008).

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TR 4001 1417). Unfortunately, the name of the second deity is damaged, and the remains of the signs as copied by Postgate cannot be restored in a way that would offer a convincing reading; but it is certainly not the name of Adad, the god to whom Nergal-e res had dedicated the Tell al-Rimah stele and whose mention would be far less surprising in the . present context than that of Salma nu. This is, after all, one of the extremely rare NeoAssyrian attestations for the god Salma nu outside of Du r-Katlimmu (see Radner 1998), the only place where the deity is well attested at the time.5 While it seems most likely that the god is mentioned here due to Nergal-e res s role in the text, it nevertheless remains unclear what underpins this relationship. That we do not know what role the city of Du r-Katlimmu played within Nergal-e res s holdings and Adad-ne ra r s realm is of course part of the problem; but the fact remains that according to the inscription of our stele, the king, in a stroke of inspiration, decided to completely rebuild Du r-Katlimmus ancient temple at a time when the Assyrian presence in the Jezirah was revitalised at considerable expense (Khne 2010: 118126). That he even used for this enterprise precious cedar beams from Lebanon, of which only 100 had been brought back from the campaign to the Mediterranean in 805, suggests that the city and its temple were meant to play a prominent and very visible role within the imperial project. aih H Recent archaeological work at Tell S . amad has highlighted the great potential for recovering evidence for the time of Nergal-e res . In 2003, an impression of the cylinder seal of one Is me-ilu, the eunuch of Nergal-e res from a discarded jar sealing (Khne / Radner aih H 2008) was excavated in Tell S . amads lower town, radically changing previous assump tions about the development of the city, whose lower town had been thought to be a much later creation. Now, however, it has emerged that Du r-Katlimmus transformation from a relatively small town to a 60 hectare city began already in the 9 th century BC, and the fact that the site underwent major changes during the time that Nergal-e res controlled it has started to become clear (Pucci 2010).

The Deletion of Nergal-e res s Name and Titles Nergal-e res remained governor of Ras . appa and his other holdings long after he dedicated the Du r-Katlimmu stele and also after Adad-ne ra r had been succeeded by his son Salma nu-as are d IV (r. 782773 BC). He was in active service at the very least until 775 BC, as this was the year when he held the office of year eponym for the second time, after a first turn in 803 BC under Adad-ne ra r (Millard 1994: 5758). At some point thereafter, his name and titles were erased from the Du r-Katlimmu stele. Our monument offers no clues as to when and why this happened. Nergal-e res s name and titles were also deleted from the Tell al-Rimah . stele, along with an entire section detailing how the king had authorized him to rebuild 331 settlements in the Jezirah (RIMA 3, A.0.104.7: 1321; Page 1968: pl. XXXIXXLI). As this forms the end of the inscription on the front of the stele, the deletion of these nine lines is far more
5

See Radner (2002: 262, s.v. Salma nu) and the personal names listed in Radner (2002: 250251, s.v. Salma nu-), with two more attestations from Du r-Katlimmu in Radner (2010: 183184).

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r III and Nergal-e res Karen Radner, The Stele of Adad-ne ra

noticeable than in the case of the Du r-Katlimmu stele, where only two lines of the less prominent inscription on the left hand side were excised. In addition to the mutilation of the stele, the Adad temple of Zama hu (Tell al-Rimah . ) also suffered the erasure of the inscriptions on two pairs of lion-head column bases (Oates 1968: pl. XXXVII) from the outer faade of the cella, which have been interpreted (Oates 1968: 125; Page 1968: 139140), correctly in my view, as duplicates of the stele inscription. Despite the mutilation of their inscriptions, the stele and the column bases were left inside the temple, close to the divine statue. We may assume, therefore, that also the Du r-Katlimmu stele remained inside the Salma nu temple. r-Katlimmu were While Nergal-e res s inscriptions in the temples of Zama hu and Du defaced, other monuments of Nergal-e res elsewhere, such as the Saba<a stele and the stone tablet from the Is tar temple of Nineveh (RIMA 3, A.0.104.9), remained unharmed. Thus, whatever prompted the obliteration of Nergal-e res s name and titles in Zama hu and Du r-Katlimmu must have been of specific regional import and not necessarily relevant elsewhere; perhaps it points not to Nergal-e res s assumed personal downfall 6 but is a result of the division of the province of Ras res (Radner 2006: 5253) . appa, which under Nergal-e nu that were later turned into separate provinces. included regions such as La q and Hinda Du r-Katlimmu, for one, was then part of the province of La q (established at the latest by 736: Radner 2002: 4; 2006: 55), and once Nergal-e res s territories had been divided it may have been deemed inappropriate to advertise that the city and its temple had formerly been controlled by a governor of Ras . appa.

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6

ams Andreas Fuchs (2008: 94) has recently argued that he, together with the field-marshal S -ilu, found his death in the course of the usurpation of the Assyrian throne by Tukult -apil-Es arra (Tiglath-pileser) III in 745 and sees the mutilation of the inscriptions as key evidence for this assumption. But Nergale res may already have died long before these events as there are no known attestations available for the period after 775.

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Karen Radner History Department University College London Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT k.radner@ucl.ac.uk